Visualizing Understanding

Story Elements 

Quick lecture on story elements and how they are used in narratives.

In what ways did creating the visualization deepen your understanding of the topic in ways that reading alone might not have? In what ways did creating the visualization deepen your understanding of the topic in ways that reading alone might not have?How has the process influenced your thinking on visualization as a vehicle for learning and/or how might you use visualization in your future teaching?

My thought process for the creation of this PowerPoint was that I wanted something interactive for my students. I did not want a straightforward, slide to slide traditional PowerPoint. I wanted to capture their attention and then I remembered that this is currently what education looks like. With COVID-19 a lot of schools throughout the United States are currently preparing for distance learning. This is where I came across a problem, I have created a mini lecture but would be unable to lecture it to my class. To solve this issue, I recorded myself. I have created similar interactive PowerPoint before and I have had experience with Kaltura Capture as well, so selecting these platforms was easy and straightforward for me. 

I tried to use images that are common to high school students such as the three little pigs or Shrek the movie. Creating this video deepened my own understanding of the topic because I had to remind myself what exactly were the elements of narratives and how could I convey this information so that it is comprehend-able before my own students start dissecting narratives or writing their own. 

As I worked on this visualization project, I realized how powerful images can be to students. Reading huge amounts of texts can be tiring and students may lose focus because there is no breaks for their eyes. Images create these breaks from large amounts of texts and images contain a lot of information as well. I tried to put myself in a high school students shoes and thought of images that they could relate to. In my future teaching, I would like to include a mixture of interactive non-traditional lessons and images into my lesson plans to keep my students engaged. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.